Yu Darvish: This One’s for Japan Baseball

Yu Darvish speaks to more than 10,000 Japanese fans at Sapporo Dome baseball park on Jan. 24.

As Japan’s biggest baseball star it seemed inevitable that Yu Darvish would, like so many homegrown talents before him, eventually depart for the U.S.

Still on Tuesday, standing on the field where he played for the seven seasons with the Sapporo-based Nippon Ham Fighters, Mr. Darvish, took the trouble to face thousands of bleary-eyed fans attending a stadium press conference to explain why he too was leaving.